Current Information:

Age-27

476, Edgware Road, Maida Vale

During the winter of 1914-1915, 8th Division held the line around Neuve Chapelle where the trenches in were in a terrible condition, largely due to the persistent and heavy rain which turned them to mud and caused the sides to collapse. The 2nd Middlesex battalion of 23 Brigade followed the normal pattern of 2-3 days in the front trenches followed by a period in the support trenches or in billets in reserve. One of the periods the battalion spent in the front line was in the trenches at Rue-du-Bacquerot near Laventie from 1st to 4th February, 1915 and it was here that Frank Cross was killed on 3rd February. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.